Equitas Academy Charter School provides a structured, achievement-based community that prepares students to graduate from four-year colleges and universities. 

Equitas Academy Family Partnerships Vision Statement

When we partner with families, scholars succeed.  Parent Partnerships at Equitas empower parents to be advocates in their scholar’s journey to college graduation. We provide meaningful learning experiences and tools for parents, organize a self-governing team of parent advocates, and cultivate strong community partnerships.  Through continuous building and growing of strong relationships with all stakeholders, all scholars will thrive and achieve college graduation, ultimately changing the narrative of Pico Union.

Core Beliefs

1. School staff has the responsibility to create clear and consistent communication pathways.
2. All families have dreams for their children and want the best for them.
3. All parents can contribute to the school community.
4. School staff and parent interactions should be based on mutual respect and assuming best intentions. 
5. A strong home-school connection leads to scholar success. 

Parent Engagement 

Equitas Academy schools expect parents/guardians to be partners in the education of their children.  The important task of educating a child calls for the school, the student and the family to all work together to ensure success.  Because we believe parent/guardian participation is extremely important to the Equitas mission, we encourage our families to volunteer for 40 participation hours a year. 

Equitas families can earn participation hours by attending school meetings, family workshops, daily duties and tasks at school, fundraising efforts, donations, take home projects, etc. We want to make achieving our goal of 40 hours per family accessible, but we also want to ensure that our scholars are safe and receive minimal interruptions during the day to focus on their learning.   We achieve this by maintaining strict guidelines and procedures for every aspect of our participation opportunities. 

All Equitas volunteers that will be providing help at the school site must abide by the following procedures:

1. All volunteers must FIRST sign-in at the school office prior to entering to the main building.  Parents/guardians/family members and visitors that do not check-in at the main office first, will not receive credit for the hours involved that day and will be escorted off the premises. 
2. Volunteers and visitors sign-in at the front desk at the computer station by clicking on the appropriate icon depending on the reason for their visit.  This will keep track of participation hours and length of visits.
3. Volunteers and visitors must wear an Equitas badge at all times during their stay at Equitas so that staff can identify the adults that have authorization to be in the school.

The following is a list of opportunities for volunteers looking to participate at the school site.  

Help Supervising Students/Areas

Parents and volunteers that will be providing help with the scholars must first attend an Equitas workshop on participation expectations.  Regular in-school support will also require parents to complete a background check and TB Test.  

Participation Opportunities that involve direct interaction with students:

o   Breakfast help

o   Snack help

o   Lunch help 

o   Recess/PE help

o   Pick-up and drop-off help 

o   Field trip chaperone

o   Classroom helper 

Participation opportunities that do not involve direct interaction with students:

• Office helper
• Cleaning student snack/lunch tables
• Maintaining playground/area
• Sweeping the school grounds
• Take home projects 
• Aiding in school fundraisers
• Participating in leadership roles at school (ex: secretary for SSC)

Equitas Meetings

Our families receive participation hours for attending any Equitas event or meeting.  The goal is to have a strong sense of communication among school and family and this is being nurtured through the participation in these meetings or events.   When attending the following meetings or events parents/guardians need to sign-in to receive the participation hours.  

o   Cafecitos 

o   School Site Council meetings

o   Family events

o   Saturday Academy

o   Parent conferences

o   School performances

o   Attending community events (ex: Neighborhood Council meetings)

Donations

We are always taking donations for any events, meetings, daily school and office supplies, and any fundraising efforts that Equitas may have.  These participation hours need to be registered by Equitas staff in the main office.   

For any questions about parent/family participation hours you may contact the School Office Manager.

Letter Updates

Every week, your child will bring home updates from the school.  This will contain important information about the schedule/calendar, events, announcements, field trips, and other important reminders.  It is very important that you take the time to read these updates completely. Please remove all letter updates from the students homework folder once read and provide a parent/guardian signature on homework cover page as an indicator to school staff the information has been received. 

Parent Conferences

At the end of the first and second trimester, a parent/guardian will be expected to attend a parent conference with their child’s teacher. 

Behavior Logs

Behavior will be recorded on the front cover of the homework everyday. Your signature is required every night on the homework. Homework is not considered complete unless the behavior log is signed.  In addition, your child will bring home a Kickboard report in their homework folder every week that informs you of their behavior. 

Phone Calls

Throughout the year, you may receive a phone call or note from a teacher or school leader.  If the message requires a response, please contact the school either by phone or in writing within 24 hours.  You should expect to hear from your child’s teacher at least once a month during the year.  

Meetings

Parents have an opportunity to schedule a meeting with staff members in the office.  School leaders will also be on-call to answer any questions. 

Parent/Family Concerns

As you know, Equitas Academy is a very demanding school, with high expectations for academics and behavior.  All of us – parent/guardians, teachers, and school leaders – are working hard to help your child climb the mountain to college.  We are all part of your child’s team: if you and your child work with us, we can all succeed. If you have a concern about a school policy, academic grade, discipline decision, or anything else, we ask that you take some time to reflect on it and then follow the meeting procedures at the school.  We welcome any conversation.  We understand that as parents/guardians, you have very strong feelings about issues concerning your children and want to address those concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible.